Burma, America, The World, Art, Literature, Political Economy through the eyes of a Permanent Exile.
"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Sometimes we must interfere. . . There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention . . . writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right." Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1986, Oslo.
This entire site copyright Kyi May Kaung unless indicated otherwise.

NEW REPORT NEW REPORT NEW REPORT STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN BURMA 2009 http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2009/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been closely following the case of democracy activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, whom the military regime in Burma has accused of involvement in a bombing plot. Authorities at the airport arrested him in September 2009 and he has been tried for a number of offences but none have any connection to the plot and none have any validity. He has also allegedly been tortured and held in a dog pen. The verdict is expected tomorrow, 27 January.

CASE DETAILS:

As has been widely reported in the media, Kyaw Zaw Lwin (a.k.a. Nyi Nyi Aung), a former student activist from Burma who has settled in the United States, was arrested as he arrived at Rangoon airport on 3 September 2009 to visit his ailing, jailed mother.

Military intelligence and Special Branch police reportedly took Kyaw Zaw Lwin to one interrogation centre after the next and then finally to the central prison, where according to a relative who visited him, he has been kept in a dog pen. According to his US-based lawyer he was also assaulted and denied food and sleep during interrogation.

On 24 September the state media claimed that Kyaw Zaw Lwin was involved in a bombing plot–which in Burma is as good as announcing his conviction even before a trial has begun. Three charges were laid against him on three different dates: for allegedly lying to immigration personnel, for a foreign currency offence and for allegedly having a fake identity card. However none of them relate in any way to the contents of the media reports. Like other politically-motivated cases in recent times the case was heard in a closed court, from October 2009 to January 2010.

The AHRC has studied documentation on the case and has found that the charges against Kyaw Zaw Lwin are invalid for a number of reasons.

1. The charge concerning the identity card is invalid because--as the police officer prosecuting the case admitted in court—the detainee did not produce the card at the airport and the police do not have any other record of him using the card; without intent the charge cannot be made.

2. The charge concerning foreign exchange is invalid because Kyaw Zaw Lwin was taken away by military intelligence even before he could make any declaration to customs. The next day the intelligence personnel came to customs, took the forms and returned them as completed. This process is completely illegal.

3. The third charge is also invalid since it can only apply to residents of Burma, of which Kyaw Zaw Lwin is not one.

Notwithstanding these, the district court handling the case has proceeded with the trial, the outcome of which will have been determined by persons not sitting in the court. The court is expected to give the verdict and sentence of those persons on 27 January.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Kyaw Zaw Lwin fled Burma after the 1988 uprising and later settled in the United States, where he took citizenship. His mother, Daw San San Tint, is currently serving a five-year sentence in Meikhtila Prison, Mandalay, for allegedly having had contact with activist groups abroad. She is suffering from cancer.

His female cousins, Ma Thet Thet Aung and Ma Noe Noe are serving 65 and seven-year sentences each for alleged involvement in the September 2007 protests, as is Thet Thet Aung's husband, Ko Chit Ko Lin, again for seven years.

Despite his activist background and the imprisonment of his family members, Kyaw Zaw Lwin had reportedly been able to travel on his American passport to Burma a number of times since 2005. The state media reports alleged that it was during these trips that he met with activists and became involved in the alleged terrorist plot.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

In recent years many activists have been accused in concocted terrorist plot cases, including U Myint Aye, the founder of local group Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (UAU-018-2009). Like Kyaw Zaw Lwin, Myint Aye was 'convicted' in the state media before he was ever tried in court.

Myint Aye and his two co-defendants also allege serious torture of the sort alleged in Kyaw Zaw Lwin's case. In addition to the accounts of torture documented in Urgent Appeals, the AHRC highlighted the prevalence of torture in Burma in a recent open letter (OLT-001-2010) and also in recent statements (STM-220-2009; STM-199-2009). For more information on the situation in Burma, see the 2009 AHRC report, reports in bi-monthly journal article 2 at http://www.article2.org/countrydisplay.php (search for 'Burma') and the AHRC Burmese-language blog.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the persons listed below to call for the release of Kyaw Zaw Lwin. Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and Rangoon, Yangon.

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Myanmar, on human rights defenders, and on torture; to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and to the regional human rights office for Southeast Asia, calling for interventions into this case.

I am writing to express my concern over the arrest, imprisonment, trial and alleged torture in Myanmar of Kyaw Zaw Lwin, an American citizen.

According to information that I have received, Special Branch and military intelligence officers arrested Kyaw Zaw Lwin after he disembarked a flight from Bangkok on 3 September 2009. They took him to various interrogation centres and later to the Insein Central Prison. On 24 September the state media carried reports accusing him of involvement in a terrorist plot.

On 14 October hearings opened against him in Mingalardon Township Court in the first of the three cases, Judge U Than Lwin presiding, and on 30 October the case was transferred to the district court after the second case was opened, on the complaint of the airport customs investigation unit. The third case was only opened on 29 December on complaint from the Botahtaung Township office of national registration. None of the cases relate explicitly to the contents of the earlier news reports.

I am informed that the charges against the accused are invalid for the following reasons:

1. Under section 468 of the Penal Code, read with section 463, there must be intent to commit forgery for the purpose of cheating. However, Police Captain Than Soe admitted in court on 5 January 2010 that the accused at no time produced the supposedly forged card and nor do the police have any record of his having used a forged card or of any intent to use one, so there is no act or intent to act upon which to lay this charge.

2. The foreign exchange charge is baseless because personnel of Military Affairs Security (MAS) intercepted and took away Kyaw Zaw Lwin even before he had given any declaration forms to customs. The next day, 4 September, MAS personnel came to take forms from the concerned office and then returned them, completed, to airport customs. This completely illegal procedure was openly admitted in court by the fifth prosecution witness, U Khin Maung Cho, Assistant Director, Customs Department.

3. The charge under the rules for residents is also without any validity, as per section 33, because Kyaw Zaw Lwin is an American citizen and resident, and so these rules do not apply to him.

Furthermore, the case was heard inside a special closed court in the central jail, which I note is in violation of the Judiciary Act 2000, section 2(e), as there is no law that permits trials to be conducted in this manner in Myanmar.

In light of all the above failures of law I urge that irrespective of the outcome of the trial the concerned authorities take immediate and necessary steps to release Kyaw Zaw Lwin.

In addition to the above failures of the case against the accused, I am aware that his lawyer in the United States, Beth Schwanke, has previously notified the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture of the alleged torture of her client while in custody. According to her, he has been assaulted and denied food and sleep. He has also allegedly been held in dog pens; this is a form of incarceration that other former detainees have also at times reported in which the detainee is kept in a tiny space adjacent to dog pens. All these allegations of torture and degrading treatment are credible and consistent with those of other detainees.

In this respect I take this opportunity to remind the Government of Myanmar of the need to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to places of detention as a matter of the utmost urgency. I can see no reason as to why the government has failed to agree to the ICRC mission in accordance with the terms of its international mandate and has for the last few years refused it access. The only conclusion that can be drawn from looking at the case of Kyaw Zaw Win is that the authorities in Myanmar are intent upon using the sentences passed through courts as a means to pursue other forms of extraordinary cruel and inhuman treatment in prisons and other places of custody. The persistent refusal to accommodate the ICRC and allow it access to detainees like Kyaw Zaw Win is one of the reasons that Myanmar's international reputation remains among the worst in the world, and it will continue to be that way until the Government of Myanmar changes its position on this matter.

Prints are made (like this light box) on plastic plates (like plate glass) on acrylic paints spread with a brayer (roller).

We also used brayers and our hands in gloves to make marks.

The master printer in the print shop then picked each plate up carefully and placed them face down on a printing press, covered the plate with blankets and pressed with a hand crank (or mechanical press) and put finished paper prints (on paper worth $2-3 per sheet)sheet by sheet to dry on a special rack.

I was teamed about 15 minutes each with Don, and a Thai artist Rungsak from Chiangmai University. There is no time to talk or discuss, and anyway the Thai artist did not have enough English and I have almost no Thai.

In three mornings spread over three Conferences over three years we made about 40 prints each morning, working non-stop 9-12 noon. We were on our feet throughout the workshop and after each print, had to scrub off the plates and clean the table.

It was a bit like cooking together and every family knows how potentially murderous that can be.

The Conference kept most of the prints, but we were allowed to bring home the ones we worked on ourselves.

The master printer got the first choice and he truly had an impeccable eye for art.

A great deal of trust is needed, because once one turns one's back, the art partner may erase it all in an instant.

I longed to use color, but Dave made us start with black and white (for artistic rigor!) and I could only sneak in a light strain of yellow ochre. I have this print now. It shows hills like those near the Pearl River in China.

Later the Conference expanded this 1997 version, where I also read poetry to music to --

1. poetry and music with dance

and

2. A thirteen writer/artist extravaganza with music, poetry/prose and painting in a light box which was projected on a screen.

The correct name is Abstract Expressionism or Action Art.

The true print process above is very expensive (need a full press and workshop) and so now I work directly on paper or canvas (therefore no reverse print) and use brayers or a splash/pour/print technique.

"Versos?" where Mary Cassat, for instance, laid a piece of paper on her finished painting to produce a reverse print -- now will sell for close to 1/2 a million I think -- depending on how well known the artist is.

But the monoprints I/we made are single edition -- I did go to a DuPont-related facility, Qoro, in Wilmington DE and made high quality digital scans (Qoros) of one. The founder/owner of Qoro used to work as a DuPont engineer.

At the scan facility, I saw a big scanner that could scan a human being and an art original by Andrew Wyeth's father of a pirate scene.

-- The other type is Sand Mandalas, made of colored sand on wood plastered with yak butter.

This is part of Tibet Buddhism. Madalas are made to honor the Buddha, beautiful scenes like The Sermon in the Deer Park, the very first sermon preached by the Buddha.

I saw Tibetan monk make this in Philadelphia at the University Museum. They used little cones to shake/scrape down colored sand. There may have been a tape of a monk chanting in the background, but I remember best the sound of the cones scraping against each other, like cicada's wings.

The monk may have been Lopsang Samten, who was later in film about Tibet, written by Harrisan Ford's then wife Melissa Ford, but I don't think it was.

The monks do not keep the mandalas at all. They scrape it all off completely and then go in a procession with the community and throw the sand in a river for the water creatures.

Mandalas are amazingly intricate.

Commentary copyright Kyi May Kaung.

Original post from Internet follows:

This video shows the winner of "Ukraine™s Got Talent", Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.00

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman's face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman's face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Kseniya Simonova says: (??? Editor)

"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there's surely no bigger compliment."

I am sharing with you an analysis with a disturbingly positive spin.Although I disagree strongly with the issues as framed and I find theempirical evidence given is flimsy, I am posting so that people areaware of spin-and policy-driven analyses that dot the world of Burmawatchers, who generally go on whirlwind tours in various spots andgather oral evidence from Burmese elite who speak English and havetheir own local elite-spin. The English-speaking Burmese elite is an inconsequential number in Burma, despite the impression that because it was a former colony many peoplespeak English - but how many is many?

{Copy editor’s note: I can only count less than 20, of which most are woefully out of date and isolated. You also have to take into account that few people will come forward to offer opinions under such a repressive and ignorant regime).

What is most interesting, nah, disturbing, about this brief analysisis not what it says but what it chooses to OMIT.

The situation is dire for many parts of the country. Theanalysis doesn't even consider worth mentioning that Burma's rulershave just spent $600 million in their latest purchase of MiG-29s while theagriculture-based economy has nearly collapsed.

Curiously, it talked about the regime consulting with economists as if ostentatious acts ofconsultation had a direct correlation with policy improvement or detectable behavioural change on the part of the SPDC.

Senator Jim Webb's meeting with Than Shwe and ASSK was billed as"a breakthrough". Webb is no longer a credible voice on Burma, and noone in Washington looks to him for his intellectual or politicalleadership, when it comes to Burma. The cowboy manner in whichhe went to Burma on a rescue mission to bring back mentally derangedVietnam vet John Yettaw, or the Swimmer (across the lake to enter SuuKyi's compound) has made even die-hard unconditional regimeengagers uncomfortable.

A regime security official in Nay Pyi Taw who cares about thewell-being of the public wrote me saying that he agreed with mycharacterization of General Than Shwe's Nay Pyi Taw or the new royalcapital as the 'graveyard for engagers'.

Washington is no longer enthusiastic or hopeful about the prospects ofengaging with the regime. I was in Washington before and afterAssistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific Kurt Campbell wentto Burma. I did meet the USG officials, whom I am sure are the sameofficials whom the analysts of the essay also met with.

For the record, Washington's premature hype about the new engagementis no longer there, after Dr. Campbell's trip. Washington simplydoesn't really care - Burma is NOT N. Korea or Iran. The ObamaAdministration doesn't spend much time thinking or talking or doinganything about Burma. That's just a plain fact.

(Editor’s note: Besides 2 wars which aren’t going well, the economic downturn and the health care reforms, the Obama administration is currently engaged in a big way in helping Haitian earthquake victims. Here too contrast the US response and acceptance of US aid in present-day Haiti with what happened in Burma with first the blocking, then the leakage of Cyclone Nargis aid in Burma in 2008).

Back to the dire economic situation in Burma, which thepositively-spinned "analysis" below does not deem worth-mentioning.It is a stroke of public relations genius to discuss how generous theAmericans are ($75 million) and how quietly cooperative the regime ison the humanitarian front. Yet the analyst chose NOT to mention what kind of economic conditions triggered this humanitarian tragedy.

(Editor’s note: Haiti and Burma both suffer from the legacy of dictators, who took out everything and put the cash in Swiss accounts – in the case of Burma, also in Dubai and Singapore).

In many parts of the Delta, people are being forced to skip even themost basic rice-based meals. I am reminded of an Africanmother who responded to the news that Bill Gates wanted to makecomputers available (I am sure installed with Windows, not Linuxoperating system) for every African child, by asking "can my kids eatcomputers?" Intellectual goods are by nature of secondary importanceto those who scavenge for daily meals.

The number of people going hungry is growing simply because they can't affordenough rice for their daily intake while the morally complacent urban,educated elite pronounce the restoration of (colonial) Burma's statusas the world's top rice exporter.

An FAO/UN report released in Nov 2009, framed the Nargis-hit Delta as“entering the rehabilitative phase.”

A normally calm Burmese friend of mine who works in the Delta wasmoved to write these few email lines to me this morning, upon readinga UN agency report on the situation on the ground:

"The delta is NOT in a rehabilitation and early recovery phase. It ismired in near-famine conditions. Well, nobody’s falling dead fromhunger yet, but we have a case of paddy farmers entreating us forRICE.How on earth could an international agency state there is a clear lackof reliance and reduced dependency on food assistance. Can they reallyfeel hunger and see things from the rural people’s perspective?"

Optimism as a source of positive energy is one thing. But a positivespin completely devoid of a dose of unpleasant realities is another.Most analyses (800 word-essays or 20,000 word-reports) fall under thelatter category - positive SPIN with blatant disregard for therealities as lived by the Burmese people on the ground.

Furthermore, the brief essay below talks about elections and the youthof Burma today are known among the Burmese political classesas simply UN-INTERESTED in either the regime or the opposition -politics in general, election or no election, revolution or norevolution, unless they are watching trashy DVDs and participating in acts of mourning the death of Michael Jackson are to be interpreted as “progressive behavior”which will somehow contribute to the country's desperately neededchange.

The favourite motto among Burmese youth, especially those wholive in the ethnic minority states, which captures their collectiveaspiration is “to cross over the mountain” - meaning going to China,India, and Thailand in search of greener pastures.

As for the election, except for those who will run in it and/or benefit from endorsing it publicly, most people believe it will be rigged. According to first hand reports by Irrawaddy magazine etc, the election is NOT on the minds of any Burmese, youthful or nearly dead.

The author talked about minorities whose loyalty has been doubtful tothe great Union of Burma, and yet failed to mention that many peripheral regions of Burma have never really been a part of present day Burma. How could a central power consolidate its ruleover territories which, for all intents and purposes, it never really had under its administrativecontrol?

The analyst simply repeats the 60-year old local Burmesehistoriography puffed up with tin-pot local imperialistic aspirationsand views.

(Editor’s note: Evidently Badgley takes the view, like Robert Taylor in The State in Burma apparently does, that the larger and more powerful the central state, the better. This is not necessarily true. Many of the most sustainable and long-lived societies are highly democratic, with weak central administration, for example see Jared Diamond’s analysis in Collapse of some very small Pacific islands and of New Guinea. Balinese agriculture is also very democratic. The farmers work out the irrigation rotations on their terraced farms on their own by discussion).

Finally, the analysis takes the view that the Obama Administrationshould go easy on the regime for its human rights violations -massive and well-documented - while phrasing the invasion of Chinesemigrants, traders, etc. into Burma as something that should causealarm - not that one would look to Washington for defending humanrights, but the sentiment behind this exhortation makes my stomachturn.

So much for educating the English-speaking world about Burma. So much for liberallyeducated American minds!

Welcome to the Burma world of delusions, distortions and outrightlies. If this Burma world of both half-baked experts andself-aggrandizing tyrants is not pathetic and pathological, I don'tknow what is.

A few weeks ago I asked Thirster from Cornell University JOHN BADGLEY,political scientist, information systems specialist, and long-timeBurma scholar, to think about giving us a policy essay on Burma(Myanmar), based on his most recent visit to that long-sufferingcountry. What, if any, are the glimmers of hope? How should Americanpolicy be fashioned to magnify that hope?

John responded with the following important essay, just in today. Hewas stimulated by a ThirsterGram, * IRAN’S ONGOING REVOLUTION II:U.S. STRATEGY AND TACTICS, dated Sunday, January 3, 2010 (provided byThirster BILL BEEMAN), in which Columbia Prof. Gary Sick outlined waysin which the US could conduct itself so as to maximize chances ofhaving a positive influence on that troubled nation. He sees the needfor a more or less similar approach in Myanmar.

John has lived in Burma for some years, visited it frequently, andmaintained a decades-long interest in the promotion of authenticdevelopment there. Here, he comments on findings from his most recenttrip, from which he returned about two months ago.

Thanks, John!

Best,

Bob

BY JOHN BADGLEY:

CONTINGENCIES AFFECTING MYANMAR’S ELECTION

Gary Sick does a great job of analyzing how the Obama administrationstays officially above the fray in Iran, yet keeps open the doors toCongress as well as to the layers of Ahmadinejad’s opposition. I wouldlike to accomplish the same thing in this short essay, following ourexchange with Thirsters at our watering hole last month.

As we dig more deeply in U.S./Iran relations, some parallels withU.S./Myanmar become inescapable. Long an outlier with his own reasonsfor hostility to the U.S., Senior General Than Shwe has nonethelessaccepted avenues of contact with President Obama. Unlike Iran, theBurmese regime has responded positively in several ways toWashington's overtures. While keeping the door closed on pastpriorities for the U.S.—release of political prisoners and demands ofthe NLD opposition-- they have allowed numerous US supportedhumanitarian INGOs to operate throughout the country. Throughout 2009the governments collaborated unofficially but closely through the U.S.military attaché’s office and AID to distribute $75 million worth ofassistance following Cyclone Nargis.

Under U.N. auspices and through private international aid groups,American private and public humanitarian assistance has seeped intoevery division of the country. Hundreds of American teachers haveflooded private schools in Yangon and Mandalay, breaching visabarriers with some cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Under the radar is a favored expression on both sides as youth culturechanges dramatically through these outside influences, not only inmajor cities but in distant towns and regional capitals as well. Fornearly a half-century Burma’s leaders aspired to maintain isolation,but global influences are not to be denied. Upcoming elections thisyear are a feature of that response, a fifth step in the regime’svaunted seven-step road map to “disciplined democracy”.

As neighbors Thailand and Bangladesh demonstrate, holding elections isonly a partial guarantee of liberty and freedom. Backsliding todespotism comes easily throughout the region; thus the critical needto keep avenues of influence open. Western societies are imbued withhigh tech communications, reinforced by tens of thousands of touristsvisiting Myanmar from the West, Japan, Australia and Singapore wholeave a vital lingering influence via other avenues thangovernment-to-government relations. Barack Obama, having won hiselection by taking command of networking in the digital revolution, isplaying the same card in both Iran and Myanmar. Youthful citizens inboth countries were equally fascinated by that election process. Themeans and method were not lost on them.

In my recent trip I briefly toured several Irrawaddy Delta towns &villages to visit libraries destroyed by the Cyclone Nargis and meetlocal library boards. They are sustained by business families and themonks they patronize. Theirs is a vital private sector, a feature ofcommunity extant for many years yet overlooked by foreign analystsfocused on central government. International TV and radio news is partof their lives, local magazines and news is no less important. Myanmarnow has several hundred serial publications dealing with news andentertainment, compared to fewer than a dozen twenty years ago.Children watch many of the same DVDs one finds pirated in Bangkok,China and the rest of Asia. Michael Jackson’s death was no lessmourned by youth in the delta than it was in Yangon, Chiang Mai, Daccaor Shanghai.

My point is that the hard sell, the poke in the eye, the tit-for-tatnature of Burmese-American relations is dysfunctional in terms ofmeeting hopes of society. I believe most U.S. officials experienced indealing with Myanmar understand this; increasingly staff members onthe Hill are coming around to accept that reality as well. Thissession of Congress is experiencing fewer fruitless attacks on themilitary junta than in past two decades; more House and Senate leadersare permitting the Administration to grope through the current impassein search of better relations. Since Obama’s election I participatedin several meetings and had conversations in Washington D.C. withofficials confirming an altering relationship. From SecretariesClinton and Gates the marching orders are a bit furtive, but withinthe U.S. Embassy is a mood unlike any I’ve experienced in decades.

Assistant Secretary of State for Far East, Kurt Campbell, hisassistant, Scot Maricel, and the Burma Desk officer, Laura Schiebe,visited Nay Pyi Daw while I was in Yangon. They also met separatelywith a seasoned group of Burmese economic leaders plus a group ofAmericans directing humanitarian relief programs. In like manner,several western scholars have been consulted this past year by seniorofficials. Following Senator Jim Webb’s breakthrough meeting with theSenior General and Aung San Suu Kyi in August, the two sides aremoving haltingly to some civility.

Reconciling sixty years of strife will not happen quickly.Negotiations were pursued by Prime Minister U Nu in the ‘50s, byGeneral Ne Win in the ‘60s, and by Premier Khin Nyunt two decades ago.He established armistices with 17 armed ethnic armies, most of whichremain in place. As part of the settlement these insurgents kept theirarms to maintain police functions in their areas. Khin Nyunt wasdeposed and put under house arrest in 2004; since then groups in thefrontier regions have been uneasy about their future. The centralgovernment is now pressing them to imbed army officers with their owncommanders, an order rejected violently by Kokang leaders last monthwhen thousands fled to Yunnan. Beijing warned against furtheraggravations which could destabilize their own minorities in Yunnanand elsewhere as they struggle to deal with Uighur and Tibetan issues.

The Obama Administration is prudent to quietly drop past policiessupporting militant opposition to Nay Pyi Daw while it consolidatescontrol over frontier regions of doubtful loyalty since Independence.Human rights violations will happen and will likely continue; but thecontinuing invasion of Chinese migrants, investors, and commerce issurely not in the interest of Burmese society or the United States.Reporting the violations and presenting them as one important issueamong others is appropriate, but hingeing U.S. policy solely on thatcause is self-defeating, in Myanmar as in other countries.

=================================================

N.B.:

Reminder to Thirsters: We foregather at our Toping Table EVERYThursday of the year except holidays -- rain or shine, earthquake,fire or flood -- anytime between 7 and 11 PM. Pop in when you wish,leave when you wish. We meet at McMenamin's Tavern, 1716 N.W. 23rdAve at Savier St., opposite Besaw's Restaurant. There is never anagenda, so no special "preparation" is needed or possible. Wheneverlogistics permit and mood conduces -- which we hope will be often --please feel free to join us at our Table. -- Bob

"Officers including Sub-inspectors Aung Thwin, Hsan Lin and Win Myint Htun allegedly forced Than Htaik Aung to stand with toothpicks inserted into his heels, to drink putrid drain water, and allegedly also came into his cell and urinated. Officers including Police Captain Zaw Lwin and Sub-inspectors Thet Wei, Kyaw Myo Hlaing and Kyaw Htoo Naing allegedly forced U Nandawuntha, a monk, to stand throughout two days of interrogation and then forced him to kneel on sharp gravel while an officer jumped up and down on his calves. If he didn’t give him the answers that they wanted then they hit him on the head with a wooden rod."

"The systemic consequences of these and other similar rulings are twofold: first, courts at all levels in Myanmar routinely accept as evidence confessions that have been obtained through the use of torture; and second, anecdotally the use of torture is now more widespread than at any time in recent decades. The AHRC has over the last couple of years received many reports of the use of torture, including extreme forms of torture normally associated with politically driven inquiries, in ordinary criminal cases. The making of payments to police officers to have them not torture detainees is also reportedly commonplace,"

"Once deeply embedded in a system of policing torture is, as you know, extremely difficult to remove. Whatever happens in Myanmar in coming years the use of torture will remain endemic."

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has followed with concern reports of the most recent criminal cases targeting persons deemed threats to the state in Myanmar, and in particular the alleged use of grave forms of torture to extract confessions from them.

Among these is the case of Dr. Wint Thu and eight others accused over their involvement in a prayer campaign for the release of political prisoners, and of having had contact with groups abroad that the state has designated unlawful, whom it is alleged that from September to their trials in December the Special Branch held incommunicado and tortured.

Officers including Sub-inspectors Aung Thwin, Hsan Lin and Win Myint Htun allegedly forced Than Htaik Aung to stand with toothpicks inserted into his heels, to drink putrid drain water, and allegedly also came into his cell and urinated. Officers including Police Captain Zaw Lwin and Sub-inspectors Thet Wei, Kyaw Myo Hlaing and Kyaw Htoo Naing allegedly forced U Nandawuntha, a monk, to stand throughout two days of interrogation and then forced him to kneel on sharp gravel while an officer jumped up and down on his calves. If he didn’t give him the answers that they wanted then they hit him on the head with a wooden rod. Dr. Wint Thu and Ko Myo Han were also both allegedly forced to stand throughout interrogations of two and four nights respectively.

Four officers at the Aungthapyay interrogation facility in Yangon Division, including Sub-inspectors Win Myint and Soe Aung allegedly dripped candle wax onto the genitalia of co-accused Wei Hypoe, splashed him with boiling water and tied him to metal bars then assaulted him with bamboo rods. They also applied a stinging substance to his open wounds.

In a related case Special Branch officers Sub-inspector Thet Wei and Kyaw Htoo Naing alleged injected a detainee from Nyaung-U by the name of Ko Zaw Zaw with an unknown substance during interrogation.

All of the victims of alleged torture were sentenced to long jail terms in December, at a closed court inside a prison. Their convictions were reportedly based upon the confessions that the police obtained through the use of torture.

Although the Evidence Act and other parts of law prohibit the use of confessions obtained during police interrogation, the current Supreme Court of Myanmar has enabled their use and has thereby encouraged the practice of torture by virtue of a number of orders, including two rulings from 1991. In the first of these, the U Ye Naung case, the court overturned all previous precedent and effectively also the Evidence Act itself by allowing for evidence obtained during a Military Intelligence interrogation to be admitted to trial where the accused could not prove that it had been obtained through duress. Similarly, in the second, the Maung Maung Kyi case, the court placed the burden of proof onto the accused to show that he had not been tortured and threatened into making a confession.

The systemic consequences of these and other similar rulings are twofold: first, courts at all levels in Myanmar routinely accept as evidence confessions that have been obtained through the use of torture; and second, anecdotally the use of torture is now more widespread than at any time in recent decades. The AHRC has over the last couple of years received many reports of the use of torture, including extreme forms of torture normally associated with politically driven inquiries, in ordinary criminal cases. The making of payments to police officers to have them not torture detainees is also reportedly commonplace, although the making of such payments does not apply in cases like that of Dr. Wint Thu where the families of victims are not even able to locate the whereabouts of their loved ones, much less do anything to stop their suffering through the payment of money or by other means.

Once deeply embedded in a system of policing torture is, as you know, extremely difficult to remove. Whatever happens in Myanmar in coming years the use of torture will remain endemic. Clearly, it is not something that will be addressed through some modest international interventions or expressions of concern. Notwithstanding, the Asian Human Rights Commission takes this opportunity to urge you to take up the incidence of torture in Myanmar with the Special Rapporteur assigned to monitor the situation of human rights in that country and together with him to communicate your concerns with a view to impressing upon the members of the senior judiciary at the very least that until they reverse the earlier rulings that have enabled the sorts of practices described in this letter and instead issue orders to prohibit unequivocally the use of torture by police then they should be considered complicit in this abuse and should be subject to international scrutiny and censure in same measure a s the torturers themselve Yours sincerely

Saturday, January 09, 2010

As a general rule, environmentalists, like other social movements, are better playing defense than offense; better at organizing against something than for something; better at attacking enemies than holding purported allies accountable for their actions.

So we are evenin the first year of the first decade of the new millenniumalready, and what has changed, sinceI watched TV New Year 2000, with my friend from Brazil and her threemad aunts – one a ballerina and the sad widow, of an opera singer – about midnightshe started, not actually dancing but striking, dance poses. Her face sad as a funeral. Watching Peter Jenningswalking, talking and broadcasting, from behind, the curved plate glass windows on Times SquarePaula said “Look at that!”

I think she meant, “How powerful! The most powerful nation on earth.”But since then 9/11, Jennings dead of cancer, a three trillion $ war etc.For us Burmese and Burmese-Americans, even worse.

January 4, tomorrow, the 62nd anniversary of Burma’s independence from Great Britainonly a few years after I was born. Almost my whole life already and what have we achieved?A civil war still on-going. Some of the worst human rights abuses in human history.Since the junta’s 1962 coup, a continuous, descent intoa trash heap hell of the junta’s own making. At least a million internally displaced persons and orphans tramping around inside Burma, a chain of refugee camps like sad pearls, produced when oysters die, along the Thai-Burma border.

Wa Wa (“Goldie”) and Nyi Nyi (Younger Brother)before mid-September last year, I didn’t know youI barely remembered Nyi Nyi, though I did when I saw his photo.So many demonstrations for democracyin front of so many buildings, in Washington DC and New York.I felt I had to help you, in the beginning there was only one other woman helping you,before Jonathan Hulland wrote of Nyi Nyi’s Sept. 3 arrest at Rangoon airport, in the Huffington Post. Since then, NPR and AP wrote about you. Then Nyi Nyi’s hunger strike, very worrying, and after he broke his hunger strike, instead of giving him medical attention, they put him in a dog cell with trained German Shepherds sit khway (army dogs) barking at him night and day.At least now he’s back in a “normal cell.”I’m glad Wash Post, the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Malaysia Times and Straits Times now all write about you, but sad to know, you are still in prison and still have to go through a sham trial, against trumped up charges, just likeAung San Suu Kyi did. Senator Webb went in to “rescue Yettaw” the Mormon man who swam to Suu Kyi’s house. But so far only statements. Sen. Webb has not yet flown to Burma, on another mission, prompting questions, “Is it because of Nyi Nyi’s skin color? Is it because he’s a hyphenated American?”Nyi Nyi and Wa Wa, for you and the over 2100 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo, Su Su Nway, Min Ko Naing, Zarganar, Ko Ko Gyi, Mi Mi etc.We wish for you, Freedom and a Happy Reunion, with your loved ones.Sen. Webb and Kurt Campbell, please go to Burma and help Nyi Nyi and the others.Presdt. Obama -- I, a naturalized citizen and I hope not a neutralized one, voted for you. I’m not too keen about your new health care plan. Not happy it takes from Medicare, and mandates health insurance for us we may not be able to afford.

Please review the review of your Burma-U.S. policy.

It’s not all up to you of coursebut please move us closer to the Change we believe in.

They don't understand that in an equation there can be several independent (causal) variables & one dependent variable (Burma). (One English prof. talking about air crashes, did not understand difference between causality and correlation, & wrote same things that happened on date of crash must have caused it. Ridiculous. 2. Sanctions-engagement is a continuum, not on-off like a light switch(binary, zero-one ). See my BBC Hardtalk interview.I explained it all in my Burmese paradigms and models article in Asian Survey in 90s.Mono-cause leads to mono-theism "have one hammer and hit everything with it."Non-profits ruled by catch phrases & key words.My own mantra of "system change" is NOT mono-theistic, because system change involves many things, from the political institutions, to market prices, to floating exchange rates, to micro- and macro-economics. Junta thinks "disciplined democracy & 2010 elections." It's PR, no real change intended.

At least Burmese is a Tibeto-Burman language. It has no relation to Chinese (Mandarin or other Chinese languages like Cantonese) though of course there may be some loan words. That's why it looks entirely different and is written left to right, not top down.

Burmese and Tibetan have the same sounds for the alphabets and the same number of alphabets.

Thai has 5 tones and Burmese has 3 tones.

As a Burmese, I cannot read Thai script or understand it it all, the Shan (or Tai) in Burma can.

I never heard or read anywhere that the Thai "came from China."

Also you can't compare the Indian/Hindu influence of centuries ago with the Chinese influence now.

I envy you your means to travel as a family for 8 months. That means you have an open mind and are open to other cultures.

However, your blog contains some inaccuracies and sweeping statements which are unsubstantiated.

I hope this comment inspires you to find out more.

I think the ancient Cambodia script as I see it on inscriptions in Angkor are more Sanskrit-related than Pali-related. Sanskrit is older than Pali.

The historic Buddha spoke a regional Indian language called Magadha. The same way that Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Latin.

Maghada may not have had a written form, I am not sure.

The Buddhist scriptures were written down only about 100 years after his death.

The scripts you were looking at were Pali and Thai written in modern Thai script.

In Burma we also have both Pali (like Latin) and Burmese written in Burmese script. That does not mean Thai and Burmese are the same as Pali. For instance I can write a Burmese sentence nay kaun lar? in English.

Pali, like Latin is for Christianity, is the language of the Buddhist scriptures.

Pali and Sanskrit are no longer in daily use as living languages.

Old Burmese and old Thai are different from modern forms of the languages.

This is about all I know, for more info. you need to consult a linguist or do more research.

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